Edited...

I ordered one.

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what are your thoughts on this rig ?

I played with one at a hamfest several years ago and really liked it

I know now is not the best time to play QRP, but i’ve been thinking about buying one

they are so cute

size comparison to my FT7900 and an old iphone6

I think I will prolly buy one once the IC705 hits market.  Will shoot for the ND.  There is a near cult like following for the rig as well as a mass of aftermarket stuff avail!

Very popular with the low power crowd, loads of after market stuff to get the most out of it.

Love mine. It basically does everything, weighs nothing easy to use.

You do have to pretty heavily upgrade them to get the best out of them.

Must haves IMO:
Windcamp battery (Cheap, works great, decently well designed for being Chinese)
Speech compressor of some sort for SSB use.
Tuner of some sort. Elecraft T1 is the best IMO and I have like 4 other ones.
Paar EFZ trail friendly antenna.

Nice to haves
BHI DSP
Dual CW/SSB filter.
Mini 50W chinamart amp.
CW key if you use that.
Signal link or MiniProSc (mini is smaller lighter, signal link is easier to use/more flexible if you have other radios). if you want to do data
External battery of some sort.
Better UHV/VHF antenna (old school telescoping triband maldol is what I use for 6-440) its hard to find though.
Some guys like some of the various "armor" mods but you are never really gonna ruggedize it much IMO. I just use a shoulder bag to carry everything.

well,....I already have one of these

i bought it years ago for my TS480hx mobile and never used it

( not smart enough to drive and play CW )

Attached File

A 300 Hz filter is a must for CW. It makes "day and night" difference. I didn't notice much difference with a 2.4 kHz filter.
Also, SotaBeams sells a neat inline microphone audio compressor. It's a must for SSB. It's like turning on an amp. That much difference.
The rest is optional. I prefer an external battery but the radio has an 8 AA battery case installed (factory supplied). I out eight Eneloop AA batteries in there. Eneloops have decent capacity and will never leak.

Whats the difference between 817 and 817ND?

newer finals, 60m IIRC

watched a youtube on it last night but was falling asleep

.

I like mine just as a small backpack/camping rig (that I end up using for SWL.) It drove my WSPR beacon on 80M for a really long time as well.

One thing that was absolutely brain dead for the 817/8 in the US market is that it doesn't have NOAA coverage (162.4-162.55) which would be a no brainer for a survival/backpack radio. How this didn't get fixed with the 818 blows my mind.

Don't expect any miracles, especially with the current solar activity. 5 watts into a small inefficient antenna can be frustrating. I haven't used mine for portable ops in 3-4 years, except several DX contacts on 40 meters.
Last year, a friend of mine was visiting my shack. I hooked it up to the Yagi and worked several European stations on 40 meters. Got 5 by 9 report from both. They both used Yagis too. The radio was running off internal AA, Eneloop batteries at 3watts SSB Phone. The friend had a hard time believing it. He thought ham radios were limited to several miles.

i remember that pic

czec republic IIRC ?

very cool

I’ll probably keep my eyes open for a clean used one

Mothers day is sunday

i never buy myself toys when it’s my wife’s birthday, mothers day etc

There are 2 on QTH now both has been kitted out so to say.


I want a portable QRP radio bad. The Xiegu I bought but radiooddity didn’t have it in stock and said it would be a month.


Started looking at the 817 and looks pretty cool. Just not going to buy one at what they are new. The xiegu 5105 is 5W and has a built in tuner. It is Chinese tho so kinda a strike against it .

I returned the 818, mine had a dark spot on the screen that Yaesu confirmed wasn't right.

Solid and competent all-band/mode rig just never really get on with it, only because buttons and knobs are small and fiddly.

I had fun checking into QSO parties around the country with it, made the other stations work a bit

If I kept it I would have modded to output 9-10 watts from the diagnostic menu, which is 1000% safe for the 818 finals.

The stock microphone can be easily modded to be punchier on SSB, Change a capacitor and remove a resistor.

They are fun!
I picked up a used 817 (non-ND) a few years back. I haven't made a bunch of contacts with it, but the ones I have mean more.

@Derek45
Yep. Czech Republic. Guerilla Portable just south of Weimar Republic's border, sending messages to Piccolo, the head of the resistance in the occupied territories.

Send me a PM. Maybe we can work something out. I just have too many radios that are hardly used. Probably should get rid of my KX3/PX3 combo as well.

Just sold mine.  While it is kinda cool, the thing is bulky and heavy...for a qrp rig.  Battery life stinks.  I replaced the speaker to get better sound, used CW filter..a must..and some other small stuff.  I used it some on ssb.  Made a few contacts.  Mainly used it for cw.  Who knows, I may get another some day.  If you want a qrp rig for cw using batteries, there are much better options.  Can’t tell you for ssb.

@Gyprat

just sent you an email
my PM’s get full

i’m a bit short on cash

just spent money on mothers day, and bought 2500 9mm and 1000 357 swc bullets

I planned on using renewable visa gift card from work with some bonus money on it

I’ve been eyeballing the 817/818 to augment my VX-8R. I wanna get in on the regular meetings here on HF after I get my ticket. Hopefully the test will be given here soon.

make your first HF rig a 100 watt radio

QRP ( 5 watts ) is like deer hunting with a snub nose 38

100 watts is like a 30-30

1000 watts and a tower is like a 300 win mag with a 12x scope

.

sage advice

I knew I liked you. Good taste in beer.

Also, this is article I wrote a while back and posted here, I can't find the picture links due to photofuckit eating them all. Sorry for the wall of text I just can't be bothered to re-edit it all, but hopefully you can dig whatever useful things out of it that you want. If there is enough interest I'll update this again for folks since I've re-done the kit again, and have newer more functional things like computers and antennas.


My 817 kit has been evolving for nearly a decade at this point ever since I picked up a “broken” model on ebay many years ago for pennies on the dollar. It is not the newer ND model, but I think feature wise its pretty comparable.

Kit philosophy:
My Go-Bag is basically designed around the idea of having the capability to have everything from local range comms to continental range comms that can be run without mains power for a while in a minimalist package when it comes to size and weight. Ideally I wanted everything to weight in under 10lbs but it’s a bit over that.

To do this, I have my Basic Tier1 kit which fits into a portable zero shoulder bag, its compact, and reasonably lightweight. This kit provides me the capability to setup everything from credible continental range communications to local communications and have a several hour runtime on battery power.

The Tier2 support kit, fits in a similar sized bag, and provides additional capability in terms of radio accessories, antennas and digital support equipment should I need it. It does however, basically double the bulk and weight of the overall system with only a marginal improvement in communications performance and utility.

Tier 3 sustainment kit. This is all about running the radio semi permanently in an austere enviroment using solar charging and having a more robust semi permanent antenna setup. Its basically takes the rig and turns it into a base station.

The Tier1 system:
The Basic Radio Ft817
I chose the 817 as the starting point for the kit primarily for its very small footprint, internal battery, low power consumption and all band performance. It is very thrifty with power on receive and not too bad on transmit. The 5W TX power is a good fit for VHF/UHF ops out of the box. 5W on HF is a bit of compromise but for data modes and CW its generally ok.

My 817 has a pretty lengthy history at this point; when I got the radio, it was “broken” and in pretty rough shape and it had only the AA battery holder and some alka-leaks semi-permanently installed in it. However, I managed to clean it up and get it running pretty well. And for several years I used the internal pack with NiMH enloop batteries, which worked reasonably well. A few years ago I upgraded the unit to the windcamp battery system, which is actually a pretty well thought out upgrade, and provides a 3ah lithium ion battery pack, if their ratings are to be believed. I personally haven’t done much runtime testing, but it seems to last a few hours under light use, which is about all I get on the air for these days anyway.
When I heard about the impending close of Collins filters, I went ahead and bought both an SSB filter and 300hz CW filter and W4RT install them in the unit, along with the BHI DSP unit. So the radio is basically fully decked out at this point, or at least until I can figure out a way to add an IF tap to it. I can’t really say how much better the SSB filter is compared to the stock unit since I never had it installed side by side for testing, but signals do sound nice. The CW filter on the other hand is my only real regret here, 300hz is just too sharp for me use effectively and I can’t use it with data modes, I end up more time fiddling with it than actually sending and receiving CW. In retrospect the 500hz version would have been a better choice. On the other hand, the BHI DSP is nothing short of amazing, it really cuts down on the noise on the bands. The only issue is that turning it up too high really muffles/distorts the sound, but this is a common issue with most AF based DSP.

The last mod I’ll talk about is the De73 shop electret mic and audio compressor. I mainly got this after numerous durability issues with my original DYC817 inline mic audio compressor, something went wrong in the plug assembly and the unit would only operate sporadically, I ended up replacing it with another kit which did hold up, but I never really trusted it after the first one died. Anyhow, the De73 kit has the added advantage of being installed directly in the mic element which also helps on the portability and weight side of the equation. The only thing that has to be done is that input volume must be turned way down compared to the dynamic mic system.

The bag
I’ve experiment with various way to run and transport the 817 system. But with my overall focus being ulraportability for backpacking use I have gone with a tiered approach. The tier1 system I describe here isn’t actually the lightest configuration, its basically the maximum capability I’ve been able to cram into the carry bag. However, if I do need to reduce the weight I just start pulling out components I don’t think I will need and having it all ready to go is good from a preparedness standpoint.

The over the shoulder 817 bag is sold by Portable Zero LLC and works reasonably well for just the basic radio and tuner (as advertised) and I can cram in an amplifier in the main compartment as well. The side pouches then can be used to hold the mic/cw key and antennas, spare batteries and chargers. I do like the molle webbing as I can attach other pouches to it, as well as thread antennas into it. With everything that I carry as “Standard” it is not quite large enough, and pretty overpacked, but it does all fit and work.
Bag: main compartment

The FT817 as described above

Elecraft T1 tuner. Excellent small and lightweight ATU, only downside is being limited to 20W power handling capability, though I think in a pinch it would work ok for 45W SSB.

MX-p50m amplifier. China mart made, but thus far its been reliable. The main annoyance is the ultra long power cable. The amp can provide up to 45W output for the 817, though I usually run it at 25W to save battery power.

Paar EFZ antenna, this is a handy and very lightweight 3 band antenna, several other members use it so I won’t cover it much. I can deploy it very quickly and get on the air on the 10/20/40m bands. I’ve optimized the SWR for the data portions of 20/40m, though it works ok on voice. If I use this antenna I can ditch the tuner.  The only downside as with the tuner is the 25W limit for the matching network, though again I’m sure in an emergency it could handle 50W SSB for a time.

Windcamp wall wart charger: I mainly carry this so I can re-charge the internal battery if I’m near civilization or in “grid-up” scenarios.

Side pocket1:
Zippy LiFePO4 battery. This is a small 4Ah hobby battery that can be used to run either the amp, the radio, or both,  or in a real pinch other 12V stuff.
Side pocket 2: FT817 mic with audio compressor. CWkey/cable.

Back pocket 1
40-6m dipole,  a quick deploy wind up dipole system that lets me utilize all the bands down to 40 meters, also as a backup capability, I can also use this with the Paar EFZ as halfwave on 60/80 meters (betcha didn’t think of that).
RG-174 25’x2. I use 25’ lengths of RG-174 for the dipole system to keep weight down, the tradeoff is that its lossier than conventional RG-58 but vastly less bulky and much lighter, which is why I use only as much length as I need to (usually 25’ is what I can get into the trees around here).  
A selection of short coax jumpers for connecting up the amp and ATU.

Back pocket 2
Earphones: lightweight and they help significantly with CW and SSB copy.
Woliphilink cell phone interface: A small lightweight data interface for use with cell phones or tablets. It gives me rudimentary data capability with PSK-31/RTTY and the ability to receive HF-weather fax. The main downside to the unit is that it its not opto-isolated and routinely locks up every phone or tablet I’ve ever used it with when TX-ing even at 5W.
Silva compass for correctly orienting antennas. An oft overlooked tool for pointing things in the right direction in the field. Lightweight too.

Top pocket
Assorted coax adaptors PL-259-BNC etc. There is a handy little pouch pocket that holds all my PL-259 to BNC/TNC/SMA connectors and adaptors
Threaded into Molle webbing
8oz throw weight. This heavy bastard excels at penetrating foliage on the way down through leafy canopies.
Thales VHF antennas: For years I used a maldol AH510 tri-band antenna, but performance was only good on 2M and 70cm. I switched to the military tape whips which do work on 6m and the short whip works well on 2m/440. If I were super worried about weight, and could live without the 6m capability I’d use the maldol whip.
Coax jumpers: short bits of RG-174 for connecting to the Paar EFZ.

Thoughts on keeping things lightweight
One of the key points I had with this kit was to keep everything as lightweight as possible, overall the project has “ballooned” way past that into maximum capability mode. Realistically the heaviest parts of the “system” are the amp and spare battery, along with the VHF/UHF antennas. I can easily ditch those parts of the system or replace them with small/lighter antennas and end up with a much smaller footprint in terms of volume and weight. However it does cost me capability. Generally speaking though the 25-50W tx power isn’t really needed for much beyond SSB voice comms.

Tier 1 system conclusion
So the whole enchilada gives me up to 50W of transmit power for an hour or two if I need it in an emergency situation, which is within half an S unit of a 100W rig. Realistically I would only really ever use that much power for SSB if it ever came down to it, 5W on data or CW work about as well IMO. The 4Ah LiFePO4 can be used to either run the amp, or double my operating time for the basic radio. In terms of power, I can, at a minimum recharge the windcamp battery off AC if I need to. This basic packout gives me the capability to run Voice/CW/Data.  I also have 4 different antennas to cover HF/VHF/UHF as required along with a tuner to help out if my dipole setup isn’t “ideal”. The EFZ antenna is for easy/rapid/multiband deployment, while the dipole is there for maximum performance on a single band.

Tier 2 gear
The tier 2 gear, is the “heavy” support gear bag. Its all the “extras” or nice to have stuff. But it basically doubles the load I carry and considerably bulkier and heavier. It actually lives in my old 817 bag.

It includes
12V wall wart power supply to run the radio in the shack with charge adapter for Turnigy B4 charger
Turnigy B4 charger for the LiFePo4 (it can run off solar or 12V shack power

Fuji lifebook UMPC laptop power cables for 120V and 12V and data interface (see the digimodes section) as well as a USB hub.
Ip-60Z analyzer: A relatively small, lightweight basic antenna analyzer, which is super handy when stringing up dipoles and other antennas like the buddistick or buddipole.
A “extended” buddistick antenna, along with several mounts
A 6-80m dipole antenna.
And endfed matchbox for deploying endfeds.
25’ and 50’ of RG58 cable.

Various patch cables and adaptors

Tier 2 Power support.
So, for any real emergency extended power out scenario, the ability to run gear off grid is paramount.
The primary way I have to do this involves daisy chaining two or three 7W Goal Zero panels together into a 14-21W system. A big advantage of these small goal zero panels is that they provide both an 5VDC USB output and an unregulated DC power out which is not found on other small panels. The voltage provided tops out at 18V which is typical for all solar systems, but it tends to hover much lower under load, the Turnigy B4 charger can accept a 10-18V voltage. To be honest, 21W is not much power to do charge with especially considering panel ratings are typically inflated and you only really see 50-70% of the actual rated capacity in the real world. But in a pinch I can use these panels to charge the 4ah LiFePO4 battery at around a 0.2-1 amp rate in good conditions in the real world depending on how many panels I chain together, I can usually get 0.2-0.4Amp charge rate with two panels and a third panels lets me usually charge at around 0.7A, under really strong sun it can work up to 1A but it occasionally errors out if the voltage drops. Plus the panels also let me charge 5V devices like cell phones and USB battery banks.  The panels are relatively lightweight and fairly durable, the only real drawback to them is that setting them up when daisy chained is a pain in the ass. Another “plus” is I can attach them to my tier2 kit if I really need to since they are so small and lightweight. I can also use the 2amp FT817 wall wart to run the B4 charger as well, and that is mainly how it is employed.  I also have a larger more capable 120W solar setup that is also car portable and works much better, but I’m not electing to cover that here.

Antennas
I’ve divided my antenna systems into various tiers.

Tier1 antennas
These are minimal antennas designed to get me on the air with a minimum gear weight/volume while giving me a full spectrum of use for the radio.
VHF
Thales 30-90mhz antenna. It’s a bit overkill but it’s a pretty decent 6 meter antenna and it folds up reasonably small, its only real drawback is the weight.
Thales 30-500mhz antenna. Its small its light, its tacticool and it works just fine on 2m and 440.
HF antennas

Paar EFZ trail friendly 40/20/10mhz. A lot of people are familiar with this one, and it works quite well. I cut mine to operate better in the data/CW parts of the requisite bands since those are the primary modes for my 817.
Ultralight dipole kit. I have a hombrew mini 40-6m dipole for use if I have the time and opportunity to setup the antenna. I use lightweight RG-174 coax, which while being lossier than RG-58 is significantly lighter. I also usually carry 2x25’ sections since I seldom can get antennas much higher than 25’ and I want to keep losses minimal, if I somehow can manage more height , I just tack on the second section. I have the dipole pre-marked on the various bands for easy deployment, but If I can I Do carry a ip60z antenna analyzer to tweak the SWR as low as I can. Otherwise if I’m in a hurry the markings are close enough that the T1 tuner works very well or if I’m really running minimal I can use the internal tuner on the 817.
All of these antennas only weight a few ounces, and I usually only carry what I think I will need, though often I carry 2 HF antennas, and the 2 thales whips which gives me complete 80m-70cm coverage.



Tier2 antennas

As I mentioned earlier I have 2 tiers of gear, with the second tier gear being the heavier stuff that I tend to use if I’m not hauling it too far (i.e. car portable) it’s the “nice to have bag”.
Maldol AH-810 whip 440-6m: This is my actual original tier 1 VHF antenna but it now works more as a “standby” 3 band whip, it works well enough on 440/2m but the 6m rating is not really deserved, it has fairly high SWR and in practice is pretty useless. However it is much lighter and “smaller” than the thales antennas. The main drawback was that it was hard to carry it with the bag tier 1 bag, so it lives with the tier 2 gear.

Buddistick. I have a basic buddistick system that use for vertical deployments, its not all that lightweight but it is fairly compact, and it does work. I also keep an extended 9ft whip which also helps with efficiency. Coils are tapped at multiple points for different bands. While I have various coils tapped, along with the counterpoise, the IP-60Z comes in pretty handy when setting this up for minimum SWR.
80-6m dipole. Pretty similar to the 40-6 tier 1 version just with more wire, I carry it sometimes instead of the 40m if I plan to work at night but its bulkier than the 40/6 version.

RG58 cable, I carry 50ft of RG58 cable, it is much larger and heavier than the RG174, but much more efficient.

Ultra-Portable Data solutions for the 817

Wolphilink and a cell phone.
The wolphilink as mentioned above is sort of a half measure solution for running data off the 817. It does work, and even fairly well on receive and decode. On TX, my unit has serious issues with locking up every cell phone I’ve tried to use with it (3 different models, and a netbook). In terms of functionality the software works fairly well for decoding PSK31/RTTY and things like HF weather FAX. In terms of sending, the interface sort of sucks for typing, it is possible to have QSO’s with it on PSK31 but it is not what I would call pleasant. The RTTY app is the same format as the PSK31 app, though given the higher power requirements of RTTY I’ve only really ever used it for decode. The wolphilink does also work with the WSPR app and it actually does work quite well aside from the periodic lockup issue, I often use this when testing my portable setups if I have internet access as well. Overall the system is very lightweight, but it needs work on better isolation, and the actual app could use some integration with a USB keyboard to make it more usable (being able to TAB around, the boxes and buttons or using shortcuts)

Fuji Lifebook U810
I picked up this UMPC a few years back as cheap replacement for a netbook that I had been using for several years. On the plus side its amazingly compact and lightweight, 6.5”x4”x1.5” is actually about the same size as the FT817, and it weighs about 1.5lbs and runs for about 2.5 hrs on 1 battery charge. I can’t overstate the importance of having a fully functional laptop that is this small for portable work you can literllally hold it with both hands and thumb type if you have to, otherwise you can type pretty well if you have a surface to put the unit down on, IMO the versatility is unmatched.
The main downside is that the UMPC form factor has fallen out of favor these days and It is a much older computer, with only a 800mhz processor and 1gig ram. Fortunately, this is however still enough to actually run older ham radio apps. I personally run FL-Digi on this machine since I think it would struggle with HRD. FL-Digi gives me pretty much all the data modes I could ever think to use and its fairly easy to get up and running. It works great on PSK31 as one example, and the real keyboard and mouse combo is a big step up from the wolphi link/cell phone solution. I also have JT65 and Wspr running on the machine successfully, though I really wonder about the time sync required for these modes in the field. I need to experiment with a GPS receiver to see if I can pull accurate time data in the field or if its even really required. And finally I have RMS express/winmor for HF email, though given the poor conditions lately I really wonder if it would actually work on only 5W, luckily I can go to 50W if I really need it which may or may-not be enough given current prop conditions and the overall jankiness of the “network”.

General Dynamics MR-1 (Work in progress)
This was my great half baked idea for a replacement for the lifebook. It is a ruggedized military handheld and it scores a full 10/10 on the tacticool scale. However there are some serious problems that have relegated it to work in progress status. Length and width wise its comparable to the Fuji, but it is significantly thicker ~3” which is a significant minus. It is also much heavier than the lifebook probably close to 3lbs with the battery which was surprising. The main problem I ran into was that my battery arrived mostly pre-dead and new batteries are pure unobtanium these days. Until I can get the battery rebuilt and also find a spare, it’s a no-go for serious use I can get perhaps 15-20 minutes of runtime out of it at the moment.
When running it off mains power it runs a bit faster than the fuji 1.2ghz vs 800mhz and the screen resolution is much nicer. However it also requires an external dock to replicate 3.5mm mic and speaker out ports, not a huge problem, but its just one more piece of equipment to carry which adds weight and bulk. There is also a 2.5mm audio connector, but to date I have only been able to get it to work on receive which is odd. The other misconception I had was that it had an internal GPS receiver to solve my JT65 time sync issue that I mentioned above. However this was only apparently fitted to certain models, and not mine. Therefore it’s a work in progress, If I can find a spare battery or two I think I would replace the Fuji with it, despite the increase in bulk and weight.  


Where I’m headed with this.
While I’m pretty happy where I am capability wise with kit where it stands I basically have everything from local to continental commo capability in a relatively small package with the Tier1 kit, and have even more capability with the tier2 kit, along with emergency solar capability to keep everything running.
I’m always looking to reduce size and weight and improve capabilities. My future plans include at some point improving the tier2 gear with a lightweight multiband antenna that I’m experimenting with, or a lightweight OFCD or G5rv variant of some sort. The other thing to consider for data comms is the JT65 timing issue, I need to experiment with that, I can either buy a GPS dongle, or see if there is a way to pull GPS time off my phone for off grid use. I also want to upgrade my data interface system to something with an external sound card to simplify things.
One other direction I’m looking at is to see if I can make or find a “Carrier” for the buddistick that I can lash to the molle section of tier1 bag, aside from its bulk it’s a decent vertical antenna that would be nice to be able to carry on the tier1 side of the house, which would of course add more size and weight to the setup so I’m vacillating on this.
Power wise, while the Goal zero panels generally work, I’m looking at upgrading the whole thing to a compact 40-60W system that can give me 12V out as well as a USB charge port. The only real issue is the cost.

Great replies so far, thanks


everybody has them priced at $569

I wonder how long before the price goes back up.

-----Deleted-------

As an update on that earlier mega post.

I transitioned away from the thales antennas in favor of telescopic maldol ah510R which covers all the vhf bands. New bag. And for computing I'm running either the MR-1 or the much lighter GPD pocket, which can fit with the tier 1 gear if needed. Also generally running a pactor P3 modem for winlink when needed.

Ain't that the truth!

I think OP has one of those.

I have one of the first to come out I think. I know it's old as hell. I never had the RF final issue with it yet. It's basically a miniaturized FT-857. It has the typical noisy Yaesu receiver but works and I can't complain considering what all you get in that tiny package. 5 watts on HF is like a fart in a hurricane but can work if you know what you are doing and have luck on your side.

Sig line worthy!

I have more than one !

I've owned a bunch of HF rigs over the 27 years I've been on HF.

I was replying to....

Gotcha. And yeah full power for first rig. Then you can get fancy.

@Harlikwin

what is the “dual filter ssb/cw”

do you mean “get both” and swap them back n forth, or is this something else ?

It's two filters combined in one module. W4RT used to make them, but it looks like they might be discontinued now.

What simple scout said. Basically you can switch the CW filter in/out, and the SSB filter is replaced from stock. And yeah W4RT used to do it, but jesus they are terrible company to work with.

Honestly if I were to do it again, I'd go with the wider 500hz CW filter as it can be used more with data modes and its easier to use than the 300hz filter which I find to be just way too small. But when/if I pick up a signal its the only one there...

ok thanks

looks like INRAD still has both

.

Honestly, just get the CW filter if you do CW/Data. The SSB filter sounds a bit nicer, but its not world changing, main advantage is during contest season...

The MAJOR thing you need is a voice compressor or voice amplifier for SSB use. And those are pretty much necessary. Not sure why Yeasu cheaped out on that. The DYC kit is ok, but not very durable. I went through two before I got a built in one for my mic.

Some my fonder memories are just throwing the 817 as is into a bag with the mic, cw key/earbuds, and a paar trail friendly and going backpacking and in the evenings just tossing the wire in a tree and making a few contacts barefoot. Its quite lightweight. Not as good as my KX-1 but it does everything.

i meant inrad has the 300 and 500

i wasn’t considering a ssb filter

dx engineering has the SOTABEAMS speech compressor, but it says ships 6/29

thinking i could swim to europe n back in that timeframe

Weren't they AF filters? The Inrad is an IF filter (MUCH better).

Yep, The 2.4 kHz filter is barely noticeable. The 300 Hz CW filter makes a HUGE difference on a busy band. It literally transforms the radio performance on CW.
I bought a speech compressor as a kit from Germany. It looks identical to what Sotabeams sells. When I turned it on, the stations on the receiving end said it was like if I turned on an amplifier.

IDK on the CW filter, its a huge pain to use it for me to find stations. Its almost like there is an offset on mine...

Yeah that german voice proc is good.

I still use my working DYC kit with my 897 since it gets treated more gently. And worst case I can just switch it out and use the built in.

try tuning around with the narrow filter OFF....once you've got a station tuned in, then enable the narrow filter



sotra like...
this

then this

Gyprat offered me a great deal on one, but I have a VISA gift card bonus from work I needed to use.

I called R&L, they couldn't say if they had any on stock or not, then called DXe, they didn't know either.

Associated and MTC don't have any.

....so I called HRO and got one.

both DXe and HRO said they could not match the R&L price. ( they used to price match )

time to make a portable 20m dipole *------+------*

gonna ask wife to get me the SOTABEAMS speech compressor for Father's Day.

I must me nuts for trying QRP in a solar minimum, but I worked canada on 5 watts 20m SSB last night.

This was done yesterday, 10-watts peak into a coil-loaded ground plane antenna.  Operating from a state park on battery and solar power.  QRP isn't hopeless, even in the current solar cycle.

nice

what band was that ?

Mostly 40m, with about 3 on 80m and one on 160m using SSB, the blue lines are digital on 30m.  Tried 20m as well, but my antenna was ironically a bit too long to tune well there and I didn't want to pull it down and reset everything with the shorter element.  In the past, I've had excellent but brief openings to Europe on 20m with that setup (and 30m with digital modes).

What program did you use to generate that plot map?

https://qsomap.org/

You'll make an account and upload your ADIF format log file.  You can enter a gridsquare location for your contacts in the ADIF file, or if there isn't one in the file, the website pulls the grid ID from qrz.com's database.

you can export from HRD ADIF to google earth too

Did not realize that.

And thanks I made a account on QSOmap.com

older screenshot from 2015

Attached File


Nice!

Still plenty of fun to be had with qrp.  I got through a pile-up to a SOTA station and worked France and Russia from a park this morning, with 5w and a homemade end-fed.